M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin's artistic experience and I.S. Shmelev's work (toward a problem statement)

The main purpose of the article is to identify the influence of the artistic experience of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin on the work of I.S. Shmelev. Despite the comparatively small number of references to Saltykov-Shchedrin in Shmelev’s legacy and complimentary feedbacks about the satirist that are not always present, the artistic experience of the 19th century canonic author influenced the work of the émigré writer. Shmelev and Saltykov-Shchedrin differed in their artistic talent nature, social and political views, and writers’ attitudes. Sharpness, uncompromising judgments, accentuated rationalism, publicistic nature of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s works contrasted with the spontaneous elements and “vortex” style of Shmelev’s writings generated not by the idea, but by the mood. For Saltykov-Shchedrin, the connection with the current historical moment, the topical orientation to the problems of modernity was not only a feature of the creative gift, but also a conscious position of the author. Shmelev did not like the ideological leader and preacher role, however his response to the time requests was numerous writer’s publications and political tales. Shmelev’s ideologically rigorous, almost tendentious works pointed directly to the authoritative artistic experience of the nineteenth-century satirist. The writers coincided in their views on the nature and role of the Russian people in history, in the recognition of the beneficial nature of literary creativity, in the proclamation of the artist’s right to affirm the good and the truth, in striving to embody the national spiritual ideals. But the nineteenth-century classic and the twentieth-century classic were antagonistic in their choice of forms for affirming the good in literature.